Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 75

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach 

Transcript

Jeff Klein 0:00  

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Monday, February the 10th. This is Jeff Klein reminding you that your faith is not just for Sunday, but for the rest of the week too.

Jeff Klein 0:21  

I'll never forget the day I watched a dad on the driving range teach his son to golf. The problem was that the dad's golf stand, swing and advice were all wrong. If this kid listened to his dad, he had no chance of becoming a golfer of any kind - it was disastrous. He was creating muscle memory in this kid that would take a lot of time and training to undo. Someday that kid was going to have to unlearn everything.

Jeff Klein 0:45  

I've been a coach and re-teaching kids is not uncommon, but it's hard to re-learn, to unlearn and to make your muscles do something different than what you learned initially. What's true in sports is also true in our faith. Many of us have been taught truths about what it means to be a Christian - that we absolutely must unlearn that church isn't a place we go, but something and someone we are. That our faith isn't merely about right beliefs - it's about following a person. Reading the Bible is not about creating theological and moral principles, but about hearing the voice of God speaking into your life as you read. And if our lives aren't lived in compelling ways, no one will ever want to hear the amazing truth of the gospel.

Jeff Klein 1:27  

Unlearning - Jesus spent his three years on planet Earth helping his disciples unlearn what they had learned from Jewish religion so that they could become Kingdom builders, instead of just being good Jewish boys for goodness sake.Once Paul got knocked off his donkey by Jesus, he spent 14 years unlearning and relearning how to follow Jesus and become an effective evangalist for Jesus. What do you need to unlearn in order to follow Jesus with more focus and passion? What do you need to unlearn to more fully understand how Jesus wants you to live your life in a way that introduces others to the Jesus you know and follow? Let's start retraining our spiritual muscles so that we can impact the world for Christ.

Jeff Klein  2:11  

Let's pray. Jesus, we admit that we've learned things - probably soaked them in for years - that keep us from being on your mission in the world and keep us from being impactful for your kingdom wherever we go. Jesus, this week, help us to unlearn some things, to grab some new learnings from you, so that we can be effective witnesses for the gospel in the world today. In your name Jesus we pray, amen.